Cave temples and concubines

Our last day in the highlands and we started with more tea plantations. We revisited one from yesterday to do the factory tour, and pick up the 2 caches there!

We began the trip down the mountain after a quick stop at a roadside market to buy some sweet potatoes for Rosli's mum (and had some for morning tea that they cook ready for the shoppers).

We stopped enroute at a waterfall and hot spring, which isn't very popular with the locals as they charge an entrance fee (5RM = $1.66 each), so we were the only one's there... or it could be that hot springs aren't popular when it's 35 degrees and humid!

Ipoh is the 3rd largest city in Malaysia and was built on limestone and tin mining. It still has an industrial feel, but they are trying to increase tourism by promoting the limestone caves and food culture.

On the outskirts of town we visited one of a number of cave temples, before heading in to Concubine Lane for lunch. The town has a large Cantonese population who came for the mining boom, and many of the businessman housed their second wives in this street to visit when they were in town for business.

After a walk around the old town, we visited Mural Arts Lane, an otherwise drab alley that's been transformed by local artists, before walking back to our hotel.Read more